We rank the 30 best cartoons even adults can enjoy.
There was a day where cartoons were just for kids. After school, kids would race home to see Scooby Doo, or in later years something like Tiny Toons or Duck Tales. Saturday mornings used to be the golden shrine of cartoons for kids, with Super Friends and The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Hour leading way to The Smurfs and Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers. However, thanks to the elimination of many Saturday morning cartoons and the rise of Netflix and other streaming platforms offering 24-hour entertainment, things have changed.
As kids from the ’80s and ’90s grew up, they held their love for cartoons, while younger kids seem more interested in video games or streaming options. Adults have now become the target audience for many animators in modern-day television, with even shows geared towards kids having a lot to offer adults watching in the background, or in some cases, those without kids watching cartoons on their own time.
With Adult Swim making adult cartoons specifically for grown-ups and even shows on Cartoon Network making sure to make their programming as adult-friendly as they can, here is a look at the 30 best cartoons that even adults can love.
30. The Amazing World of Gumball
The Amazing World of Gumball is an animated series created for Cartoon Network, debuting in 2011 and airing over 200 episodes and six seasons to date. The cartoon features the story of a 12-year-old cat named Gumball Watterson and his family, including his smart sister Anais, working mother Nicole, lazy stay-at-home dad Richard and best friend, Darwin. The series was a mixture of a family comedy and a school-based cartoon and shares a lot in common with The Simpsons, with an even more absurd premise.
For the kids, there is a lot to love in Gumball, as the colors are bright and vibrant, the action is ridiculous and over-the-top, and the comedy is slapstick every step of the way. There are also a lot of lessons involved when it comes to kids overcoming troubles at school and in life that remains relatable to kids currently in school.
However, for adults, there is so much more. Much like other Cartoon Network shows like Adventure Time and Regular Show, there is a lot to love in Gumball for the adults in the house. While this is not an adult cartoon, it is a cartoon that knows that adults will watch it with their kids. Adults can appreciate the real-life backgrounds that the cartoon characters interact in, and there are also real-life items they associate with such as a puppet and more.
While the stories and lessons are for kids, the ridiculous action and hyperactive animation give adults something to marvel at. Much of the humor is over-the-heads of younger kids but remains very funny to anyone who loves absurdist There, and the songs and pop culture references are all there to keep adults entertained.
29. Samurai Jack
After making his name as a crew member on Tiny Toon Adventures and Batman: The Animated Series, and creating the animated series Dexter’s Laboratory, Genndy Tartakovsky made his masterpiece – the animated series Samurai Jack. The series made its debut in 2001 for Cartoon Network and lasted four seasons. In 2017, the series returned to Adult Swim for a fifth season and had produced a total of 62 episodes.
The show had an interesting opening, with the evil Aku as the narrator of the story. He explains how he unleashed evil and found a samurai opposing him. He launched the samurai into the future where he now ruled but found that the warrior was trying to find a way back in time to stop him once and for all.
Yes, Samurai Jack was a cartoon, but with the Tartakovsky-styled artwork and the fact that this is just as much a samurai epic as it is a kid’s cartoon, it is something everyone should go back and revisit. The fact that Adult Swim brought it back for the fifth season to finish the story shows that this is more an adult cartoon than one for younger audiences.
When it comes to the first four seasons, this is easy enough to recommend. However, it finished with no end to the overlying story as Tartakovsky moved on to Clone Wars. A planned movie never happened, but the new season finally gave them a chance to conclude Jack’s journey – and Adult Swim allowed them to do so in a manner with more mature elements. It was a fitting end and makes this a cartoon that all adults should seek out and enjoy.
28. Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law
Adult Swim loves to serve up cartoons with a touch of nostalgia done in the most insulting way possible. Harvey Birdman is an attorney who works for Sebben & Sebben, a law firm that consists of former Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters. Their clients are also cartoon classics that fans grew up watching. This is very much an adult cartoon, with themes and storylines that are in no way at all meant for children.
Originally airing on Cartoon Network in 2000 as a spin-off of Space Ghost Coast to Coast, it moved to Adult Swim and lasted for four seasons with a total of 39 episodes. Along the way, Harvey Birdman was a criminal defense attorney, and his cases were either based on the characteristics of the beloved cartoon characters or were just gags based on their names or likeness.
An example is defending Shaggy and Scooby-Doo when police arrest them on drug charges, and the episode includes the Mystery Machine with pot smoke billowing out of the door cracks. Another example is defending Boo Boo Bear, who is tabbed the Una-Boo Boo Bomber, referencing real-life terrorist, the Unabomber.
As an adult cartoon, Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law was made for those college-aged young adults who grew up with Scooby-Doo, Yogi Bear and more. It was very clever and has no problem making fun of anyone and everyone from the viewer’s childhood with glee.
27. Steven Universe
Steven Universe showed up on Cartoon Network after the success of The Regular Show and Adventure Time. It was clear that it was meant for the same sort of viewer, and while it took a little time to catch on, it ended up as brilliant than its predecessors.
Steven Universe debuted in 2013 and was the first female-created cartoon series on Cartoon Network. It is about a young boy named Steven Universe and his three sisters, who happen to be human-like aliens known as the Crystal Gems (Pearl, Garnetcopingand Amethyst). The three aliens are very different, one pure and loving, one dark and gloomy and one rebellious and fun-loving. Steven himself is half-Gem as his mother was the leader of this faction of Gems, and the four of them have to protect the world from the evil Gems.
It sounds like an interesting setup, but things were extremely bizarre from the start. American audiences might not be used to the Magical Girl genre, where female heroes use magic to save the world, but this is a perfect example. The show is named after Steven, but he needs to be protected by his sisters more than he saves anyone on his own. There is also a considerable amount of anime-styled animation involved, adding to its Japanese roots.
Honestly, it is hard to describe what Steven Universe is about to anyone who has never watched it, but it is something that everyone – adults and kids alike – should check out. There are five seasons so far, and the episode number has hit 140.
26. Trollhunters
Not all of the great cartoons that adults can love are classics. Sure, there are many great cartoons from the past, but in today’s streaming video world, there are some fantastic options as well. In 2016, Guillermo del Toro (Hellboy, Pacific Rim) oversaw and brought the great Netflix animated cartoon Trollhunters into the world. What resulted, as expected from someone like Del Toro, was a cartoon that blew its contemporaries out of the water.
Trollhunters tells the story of Jim, a 15-year-old boy who finds an amulet and ends up named the new Trollhunter. With his friends Toby and Claire, and troll mentors in Blinky and AAARRGGHH!, Jim sets out to stop a group of goblins and Changelings from invading Earth. The amulet gives him a suit of armor, and despite the name of the show, he is not hunting trolls but instead helps and protects them from the bad seeds living in the Darklands.
This is an episodic series, with the first season on Netflix showing Jim forced into action to stop a villain named Angor Rot while trying to save Claire’s baby brother, who was replaced by a Changeling. The second season, which hit in 2017, starts with Jim in the Darklands trying to rescue the kidnapped babies. This is excellent stuff, not too violent for kids, but perfect for adults who love cartoons.
There have been only 26 episodes through the two seasons, but there is more to come, as Season 2 ended on a cliffhanger. This means that Guillermo Del Toro will keep fans entertained for the third and final season, returning in 2018.
25. The Critic
Back in 1994, Saturday Night Live alumni Jon Lovitz created an animated series aimed squarely at adults called The Critic. Taking place before Fox and Comedy Central started to design their cartoons towards adults, this was a series that launched on ABC, although it did wrap up its three-season run on Fox.
The Critic starred the voice talent of Lovitz as Jay Sherman, a New York film critic. The show’s creators came straight from The Simpsons, so they had a firm grasp on what was funny in animation and displayed a more nuanced look at film criticism rather than a mad dash of crazed moments like Homer, Bart and company specialized.
There were a total of 23 episodes in the series, each one of them based on parodies of particular movies or genres that Jay Sherman was reviewing on his show-within-a-show, Coming Attractions. Honestly, this was an aspect of the show that kids might not appreciate, but film aficionados fell in love with. It had wit and brains that was way before its time.
The Critic was canceled after one season on ABC. Fox wanted it and picked it up for two more seasons, adding more story to Jay’s personal life without losing too much of the satire and parody that fans fell in love with. Fox canceled it after the third season, but fans helped bring it back a few years later as webisodes.
24. Space Ghost Coast to Coast
Already mentioned in the countdown was Harvey Birdman, Attorney At Law, a show based on a classic Hanna-Barbara cartoon superhero reimagined as a criminal defense attorney. That adult cartoon was itself not only a reimagining of a classic character but a spin-off of Space Ghost Coast to Coast, which was also a reimagining of an old cartoon superhero. The superhero Space Ghost turned into a talk-show host with his former enemy, the alien mantis Zorak, as his bandleader.
This was the show that Cartoon Network gambled their plans on to produce adult cartoons aimed squarely at grown-ups. After debuting in 1994, the show ended up as a monster success, lasting ten years and even spawning specials along the way. Overall, there were 110 episodes and five specials that aired on TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, and Adult Swim.
The show was bizarre, with Space Ghost serving as a talk-show host, similar to a Conan O’Brien, interviewing real-life guests through a monitor. The interviews varied between fun and entertaining and very confusing, as sometimes the celebrities questioned acted like they had no idea what they were being asked and seemed exasperated at times. Both Zorak and producer Moltar were former enemies of Space Ghost and didn’t hide the fact that they hated him, forced into their jobs as punishment for their crimes.
The talk show aesthetic was just part of the show, as there were also tangents where things just went off the rails as well as animated shorts that interrupted the talk show that bordered on surreal. If it wasn’t for Space Ghost Coast to Coast, other adult cartoons like Harvey Birdman and Sealab 2021 might never have seen the light of day.
23. Aqua Teen Hunger Force
There is honestly no way to explain Aqua Teen Hunger Force to someone who has never seen this adult cartoon series. Three aliens, a shake named Master Shake, a container of french fries named Frylock and a meatball named Meatwad, live together as roommates and have adventures. The show started out in 2000 as a spinoff of Space Ghost Coast to Coast and had the three as alien superheroes who fought evil. As the years went on, that theme had little to do with the series.
Instead, the synopsis more realistically is that sociopathic liar Master Shake does everything he can to drive Frylock crazy while using the innocent and naive Meatwad to achieve his goals and desires. Also featuring in was a disgruntled next-door neighbor named Carl Brutananadilewsi. There are also Mooninites, which are aliens that look like they came straight from an old Atari video game, and lots of cameos.
This is a show that is in no way at all meant for kids. Airing on Cartoon Network for one season before moving over to Adult Swim, it lasted a very impressive 11 seasons with 139 total episodes and even had a movie released called Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters. That title alone should tell you what to imagine when watching the cartoon.
This adult cartoon, at the time, was the longest-running animated original series on Adult Swim. Despite its cancellation after 11 seasons, Carl Brutananadilewski could still be found online with Carl’s Stone Cold Lock of the Century of the Week, lasting from 2007 through 2016, and Pregame Prognostifications from the Pigskin Wyzzard debuting in 2017.
22. Robot Chicken
Seth Green (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and Matthew Senreich joined forces to start their own production company Stoopid Monkey. The duos most significant hit was an adult cartoon that debuted on Adult Swim in 2005 called Robot Chicken. The premise of the show was brilliant in its simplicity. The two took classic action figures and put them into stop-motion animated shorts where they did the most inappropriate things possible.
Robot Chicken made fun of everything, from movies and television to popular culture and news briefs. They used everything from action figures from Super Freinds, G.I. Joe and He-Man and the Masters of the Universe to toys, Barbie dolls, and even claymation when the story called for it. Whether Robot Chicken mocked Optimus Prime using a classic Transformers toy or Stretch Armstrong, or even brilliant mixing and matching of different series, this adult cartoon skewered everything in its path.
The show was so popular that Robot Chicken attracted big-name actors to come in and voice different characters. They released Star Wars specific episodes with Mark Hamill, George Lucas, Ahmed Best and Billy Dee Williams coming in to voice characters.
While Robot Chicken has parodied everything from Star Wars, Strawberry Shortcake and Scooby-Doo to The Smurfs, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and ThunderCats, they haven’t run out of material yet. The ninth season debuted in December 2017, and there have been 165 episodes and 11 specials to date.
21. Bob’s Burgers
After finding massive success with The Simpsons, Family Guy and to a lesser extent American Dad and The Cleveland Show, Fox kicked off another animated adult cartoon series with Bob’s Burgers. The original season was hit and miss, with a lot of room for growth. However, starting with the second season, the series found its footings and became quite brilliant and a huge success for Fox Animation.
The one thing that differentiates Bob’s Burgers from the other adult cartoons on Fox is the fact that instead of dysfunctional white families (or yellow in the case of The Simpsons), Bob’s Burgers presents a Latino family who is not dysfunctional, but instead a typical family that wacky things happen to. It makes it a little easier to sympathize than one would with Homer Simpson or Peter Griffin.
It should come as no surprise that Bob’s Burgers ended up as great as it did, as creator Loren Bouchard also created the excellent Home Movies before this. With relatable characters that viewers care about and an honest hard working dynamic that most Americans can relate to, this is a show that proves that you don’t have to be wacky or out of control to make people laugh. Just be honest and deal with the crazy as it happens around you.
It worked great for Bob’s Burgers. The ratings have not been as high as The Simpsons or Family Guy, but it has lasted eight seasons so far, with 137 episodes to date and a movie coming based on the characters as well.
20. Ren & Stimpy
Many years before “adult cartoons” was a thing, Rin & Stimpy set the template for what grown-up fans of cartoons could expect down the road. This was a Nickelodeon cartoon series that was put out there for the kids to watch but had a sensibility aimed squarely at adults, which is likely why there were nowhere near as many episodes as this cartoon deserved.
Debuting in 1991, Ren & Stimpy launched around the same time as Rugrats and Doug, all with the same sort of lowbrow humor and very risque sense of humor. Ren was an angry Chihuahua, and Stimpy was a slow, easily manipulated cat. This cartoon was more violent than others of its era, despite airing on Nickelodeon. The cartoon was also smart in avoiding hot-button topics of the day and pop culture references and instead just focused on slapstick and absurdist humor to deliver its product, helping it date well.
For a Nickelodeon show, it was clear this was more of an adult cartoon because the series battled Standards and Practices at Nickelodeon for its first two years. Interestingly, none of the early episodes were neutered because show creator John Kricfalusi agreed to alternate crazy episodes with heartwarming ones. Kricfalusi left after two seasons, and Ren & Stimpy lasted three more without its creator at the helm.
Overall, there were five seasons of Ren & Stimpy and a total of 52 episodes, followed by the shortlived Ren & Stimpy “Adult Party Cartoon” in 2003 on Spike TV.
19. SpongeBob SquarePants
When it comes to cartoons that are designed for children but still have something extra to keep adults happy and content while their kids watch them, SpongeBob SquarePants might sit at the top of the mountain. It also might help to realize that SpongeBob SquarePants might be the favorite adult cartoon of all-time for the stoner crowd.
The series itself has a bizarre storyline. SpongeBob is a sea sponge which is best friends with a starfish named Patrick, works for a crab named Mr. Krabs, has a cranky neighbor and co-worker named Squidward Tentacles, and a nemesis named Sheldon Plankton who is always trying to steal the Krusty Krab secret formula. There is also a squirrel named Sandy Cheeks (who survives underwater with a diving suit) that helps SpongeBob with his adventures.
SpongeBob SquarePants has also done a lot of work at promoting diversity, although often that is buried under the absurdity of the cartoon and situations that the characters end up involved in. That likely helped its popularity among adults, as it remains one of the longest-running cartoons of the modern era.
SpongeBob SquarePants has lasted 11 seasons with 225 episodes to date. There have also been comic books as well as two movies, one released in 2004 and a second in 2015. There is also a third movie coming out in 2020.
18. Regular Show
Two cartoons hit Cartoon Network in 2010 and helped change how adults viewed the medium. While Adventure Time remains the more popular, for a good reason, Regular Show stands strong alongside its animated contemporary.
Regular Show features two friends who work together – a raccoon named Rigby and a blue jay named Mordecai. The two are groundskeepers at a local park, working for the park manager Benson (a gumball machine), and live with the older Pops (a lollipop). They also work alongside a strongman named Skips, who is voiced by none other than Mark Hamill (Star Wars) and a bully named Muscle Man, who happens to look like a troll. There is also a ghost that loves to give high fives.
It is easy to see why kids love this show based on the characters alone. However, the writing is incredibly smart and high-brow, bringing in adults for this cartoon as well. Each episode usually has Mordecai and Rigby going about their daily work before something happens that forces them to solve a supernatural, magical, or just outright strange problem. There are also numerous pop culture references from the ’80s to keep adults laughing throughout the absurd plotlines.
Regular Show finally concluded in 2017, with its 261st episode airing on Jan. 16 and a special finale that showed the fate of the universe, and possibly the entire reason that this series existed, to begin with. It was a perfect end to a fantastic adult cartoon.
17. Young Justice
When it comes to cartoons that appealed to both kids and adults alike, there wasn’t anything more popular at its time for the superhero genre that Young Justice. Released around the same time that Justice League, Avengers and Spider-Man were releasing quality shows, Young Justice went above and beyond all others.
The show was a spin-off of the classic Teen Titans series, with sidekicks of famous superheroes starting their own group when they realized that their mentors were not willing to loosen the chains that held them down. The team consisted of Robin, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Miss Martian, Artemis and the clone Superboy. Much of the early episodes dealt as much with their coming to terms with each other as teammates as it did with fighting crime.
Over time, new members joined the team including Blue Beetle, Beast Boy, both Jason Todd and Tom Drake as Robin, and more. The cartoon was hugely popular but only lasted two seasons before Cartoon Network canceled the series. Fans were outraged and protested, especially since the current storyline of Apokolips never completed. By 2016, producer Greg Weisman said that the network canceled the cartoon since it didn’t sell enough toys, replacing it with the more kid-friendly Teen Titans Go.
The good news is that Young Justice is returning with the new DC Comics streaming network. The series will be titled Young Justice: Outsiders and will debut in 2018 when the new service launches.
16. BoJack Horseman
Netflix is continuing to make great original content for their streaming service, and one of their critically acclaimed series is an adult cartoon called BoJack Horseman. Like many cartoons on this list, the actual plot synopsis borders on the ridiculous.
Voiced by Will Arnett, BoJack Horseman is a horse who also happens to be a former sitcom star of his old show, Horsin’ Around. He is now a depressed pseudo-celeb who wants to release a tell-all book with a ghostwriter while also dealing with his agent and a girlfriend that comes and goes from his life way too many times.
What makes BoJack Horseman such an excellent show for adults is that it deals with a lot of real-life issues, such as depression, addiction, coping with trauma and self-destructive behavior. There is a lot of satire in this series dealing with Hollywood and social issues, and it contains very adult topics including drug abuse, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. It is a lot deeper than anyone could expect a cartoon about a talking horse could ever achieve.
The voice cast is superb, with Alison Brie, Amy Sedaris and Aaron Paul all in lead roles. If you weren’t sucked in by the first season, give it time. The second and third season hold 100-percent ratings on Metacritic and has won over critics and fans alike. There have been four seasons so far with 49 episodes and a fifth season is on the way.
15. The Venture Bros.
In 2003, Cartoon Network premiered The Venture Bros. in their Adult Swim lineup, giving them yet another huge hit when it comes to their adult cartoons. The show teeters between being an action series and a family drama and has remained critically acclaimed and popular with the fans since its release over 15 years ago.
This adult cartoon focuses on the Venture family, which includes teenagers Hanka and Dean, their unethical father Dr. Thaddeus “Rusty” Venture, bodyguard Brock Samson and a reformed villain Sergeant Hatred. There is also their chief nemesis, The Monarch.
Overall, The Venture Bros. was a show that grew over time, starting out as a typical adult cartoon relying on pop culture gags before developing into a very smart, meta-conscious, and quite brilliant take on society’s norms. On one level, the show is almost like what would happen if Johnny Quest grew up and became a man. There is also absurd notions of heroes and villains, such as when a villain has to stop fighting because the hero has a doctor’s note. Things like this put this cartoon a step above the rest.
The one thing that makes it tough to follow The Venture Bros. is its production schedule. There have been five seasons and 71 episodes, with them hitting in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2013 and 2016. According to reports, the seventh season will hit Adult Swim in 2018.
14. King of the Hill
Fox looked to capitalize on The Simpsons success, and the network brought King of the Hill to the air in 1997. The show was a strikingly different outlook on the adult cartoon landscape as it took a realistic look at life, avoiding almost all absurdity and instead choosing to find humor in the realm of real-life in rural Texas. The success was no surprise as it was created by Beavis and Butthead mastermind, Mike Judge.
The cast of characters includes a Texas family headed by propane salesman Hank Hill, his wife Peggy (born in Montana and raised on a cattle ranch), gentle and kind son Bobby, and their rebellious college-aged niece, Luanne. The cast also included Hank’s beer-drinking neighborhood buddies Rusty Shackleford, Bill and Boomhauer.
All the episodes dealt with real-world issues that Hank Hill and his family and friends dealt with using the sensibilities of small-town Texas life and mentality. It was smart, often kindhearted, and possibly the adult cartoon with the most humanity ever created. It isn’t flawless, and some of the jokes fall flat, but at the end of the day, this is a real family, and the humor remains true to the concept. While Family Guy and South Park found ridiculous situations and pop-culture references to throw into their stories, King of the Hill just found humor in life.
King of the Hill lasted a total of 13 seasons and 259 episodes before Fox canceled the series. Interestingly, the cancelation had nothing to do with the quality of the show but was just to clear up space for Seth MacFarlane’s next creation, the Cleveland Show.
13. The Boondocks
Adam McGruder brought his comic strip The Boondocks to Adult Swim in 2005, and the adult cartoon was an immediate hit. The original comic strip ran from 1996 until 2006 and originally appeared online at Hitlist.com and then in the magazine The Source, creating a biting satire of African-American culture. When it came to Adult Swim, it filled a gap that had been missing in cartoons.
The Boondocks was a perfect fit for Adult Swim because creator Aaron McGruder struggled with Standards and Practices at networks like Fox allowing its content. The characters include an African-American family, the Freemans, living in a white suburb in Illinois. The central comedy and storylines come from the clashing of cultures when it comes to race, social classes and radicalized viewpoints.
For the first three seasons of the series, the social commentary and humor remained top notch with brothers Huey and Riley Freeman navigating life while their legal guardian and grandfather helped try to lead them to a better life. There was a lot of controversy over the years when the show dealt with hot-button topics and social issues, but McGruder never skirted the issues and remained faithful to his views.
The Boondocks lasted four seasons and had a total of 55 episodes. While the fourth season was without McGruder, the first three displayed one of the most essential adult cartoons to air on Adult Swim since its inception, ending in 2014, nine years after its premiere.
12. Batman: The Animated Series
There have been a lot of different cartoons dealing the Batman over the years. Many were great, and others remain forgettable. There are two that stand above the rest as the best of the best. Those are Batman Beyond, which deals with a future where Bruce Wayne is an older man and passes on the mantle to a new Batman. The other is a cartoon that caters to many adult fans of the Caped Crusader – Batman: The Animated Series.
Batman: The Animated Series aired from 1992 until 1995, created by the great Bruce Timm and Eric Radomski, with Batman voiced by Kevin Conroy and Joker voiced by Mark Hamill. The show was a huge critical success, winning four Emmy Awards through the years. This was also one of the first DC Comics animated series to have an actual continuity, which was great for adult fans who wanted more than just a weekly adventure.
The series was so popular that it spawned three feature films, including Mask of Phantasm, Batman & Mr. Freeze: SubZero and Batman and Harley Quinn (although that last one was nowhere near the level of the previous movies or the show). One huge difference between this and previous Batman efforts was the level of violence that included injuries and real consequences for the heroes. The success of this adult cartoon also spawned a Superman cartoon that was not up to the level of the Batman series.
Batman: The Animated Series only lasted four seasons and a total of 85 episodes, but it set the template for what a superhero cartoon should look like. It also proved that adult audiences were just as hungry for good superhero cartoons as the young ones.
11. Avatar: The Last Airbender / The Legend of Korra
Anime has long been a genre that has large quantities of adult fans and while there have been many animated series that came before, and some huge ones that came after (see: Dragon Ball Super). It was Avatar: The Last Airbender that brought young and old together for television viewers in the United States.
Debuting in 2005 on Nickelodeon, Avatar presents a world where individuals can manipulate different elements using a mystical force called bending. The show based its animation style more on American cartoons than anime, although it brought the anime storytelling elements into the mix to create a hybrid that stood tall as a groundbreaking cartoon effort.
Avatar: The Last Airbender was a substantial critical and commercial success and even spawned a movie (that was nowhere near as good as the TV cartoon). It is almost hard to believe the series only lasted three seasons and 61 episodes, but it told a complete story from start to finish about the child bender Aang, who could control all four elements – fire, air, water and earth.
Fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender got a massive treat in 2012 when a sequel series, The Legend of Korra aired. In this case, the Avatar was a female named Korra, a reincarnation of Aang, and her goal of unifying the modern world. That series lasted four seasons and 52 episodes and included a complete story that also received great critical acclaim.
10. Beavis and Butt-Head / Daria
In 1992, Mike Judge released an animated short titled Frog Baseball and introduced the characters of Beavis and Butt-Head. MTV liked what they saw and hired Judge to develop the show for the music network, which turned into a massive cult phenomenon.
This was an adult cartoon that skewered the music industry and the music videos that MTV made a living showing. Beavis and Butt-Head were two teenagers who loved heavy metal and had no respect for authority or anything else, other than sitting on the couch and making fun of everything. The show intercut real music videos, and the boys comment on them, either loving every minute, making fun of everything about it, or in some cases singing along – often mistaking all the words.
The show received a lot of flack, especially from conservative groups who blasted its reckless humor, which included a love of fire and dangerous pranks. Despite this, Beavis and Butt-Head lasted seven seasons, with an eighth coming 14 years after the original series was canceled, for 222 total episodes and one movie.
In 1997, Mike Judge took the character of Daria from the series and gave her a spin-off of her own. However, Judge didn’t run that show, and it went to Glenn Eichler and Susie Lewis, the latter of which gave Daria a popular slant for female viewers, many of which were turned away from the raunchy humor of Beavis and Butt-Head. Daria lasted five seasons and 70 episodes.
9. Adventure Time
Already mentioned in this countdown was Regular Show and Steven Universe. While those were instrumental in bringing adult cartoons that they could love as much as kids, the one that stands at the top of the Cartoon Network mountain is Adventure Time. This was the story of a boy named Finn and his adoptive brother, a dog named Jake.
Adventure Time is a fantasy epic at heart. Finn and Jake live in a post-apocalyptic land called Ooo and often go on adventures to save the kingdom, which is ruled over by Princess Bubblegum. They battled the somewhat evil, yet morally conflicted Ice King while also having run-ins with sometime ally Marceline the Vampire Queen. Along the way, Adventure Time is also a love letter to J.R.R. Tolkien, Dungeons and Dragons and classic video games.
This is not an adult cartoon and is aimed squarely at kids, but the smart writing, creative storytelling, and genre-bending tales are enough to make this a huge cult hit for adults and teenagers, many of whom are never embarrassed to quote and profess their love for the cartoon.
Fans recently learned, sadly, that like Regular Show, which started the same year, Adventure Time is also coming to an end. The final tenth season will air in 2018. There have been 274 episodes to date, including specials, and fans have just one more year to enjoy new adventures of Finn and Jake in the wonderful Land of Ooo.
8. Animaniacs
In 1993, Steven Spielberg helped bring one of the most risque and hilarious cartoons to television with the Animaniacs. Much like how Beavis and Butt-Head aired on MTV, yet skewered the music industry, Animaniacs was a Warner Bros. cartoon that skewered every other Warner Bros. cartoon in existence.
This adult cartoon was broken up into smaller sketches, almost like an animated variety show. The three main characters are Yacko, Wacko and Dot Warner, three siblings locked away in the Warner Bros. towers that often escape and cause lots of problems. Other than those characters, there is a mishmash of supporting cast members that have their own sketches. The most popular is obviously Pinky and the Brain, who ended up as the breakout characters from the series.
Other hit characters included Slappy Squirrel and her nephew Skippy Squirrel, the oft-in trouble Mindy and her dog Buttons who always has to save her life, the Goodfeathers pigeons, and more. The comedy was very much over the heads of many kids but was a goldmine for the parents and older siblings who grew up with the cartoons referenced here. The humor was also often off-kilter and absurd.
Animaniacs lasted for five seasons and 99 episodes and spun-off a Pinky and the Brain series. The best news for fans is that Animaniacs is coming back in 2020 on Hulu.
7. Futurama
Futurama undoubtedly owes much of its existence to The Simpsons. However, while the animation is similar and Matt Groening created both of them, Futurama has a lot more in common with classic sci-fi movies and TV shows. Honestly, from the start, the origin of Futurama has one of the saddest moments in cartoon history.
Fry is a pizza delivery boy who heads out one day to deliver a pizza and falls into a cryogenic pod, frozen for 999 years. In the future, he wakes up and learns that time had passed and he met new friends, including the one-eyed Leela, alcoholic robot Bender, and brilliant Professor. Together, they have adventures, and while the entire series is family friendly, the humor is perfect for adults, with satire, black comedy, surrealism and a parody of today’s world in a futuristic society.
However, it was the writing and the heart that the show possessed that makes Futurama so great. Go back to the sad moment mentioned earlier. When Fry went to deliver his pizza, he left his dog waiting for him at the restaurant. Fry never returned. In the future, Professor planned to bring the dog back to life but told Fry the dog lived to be 15, despite Fry leaving when it was three. Fry decided the dog lived a happy life without him, but the final scene showed the dog waiting outside the pizza shop for 12 years for Fry to return before lying down to die. Those moments make this one of the best cartoons of all time.
Futurama lasted four seasons before Fox canceled it. It returned in 2009 to Comedy Central for three more seasons and a total of 140 episodes.
6. Family Guy
Family Guy is an acquired taste. There are many who hate it because of the ADHD storytelling and the overreliance on pop culture gags. However, just as many people love it for the same reasons, and very few shows on television have a success rate for pop-culture gags as this Seth MacFarlane creation.
Fox premiered Family Guy in 1999, a story about a dysfunctional family and their misadventures. Peter Griffin is the father, a fat, lazy and negligent man, who has little brains and a propensity to always do the wrong thing. Lois is his wife, a very outgoing woman, and protective mother. Chris is the oldest son, possibly the only person in the show dumber than his father and Meg is the daughter, a nerdy girl who is unsure about her sexuality and place in life.
Finally, the baby is Stewie, a child who wants to kill his mother and rule the world, and while we can hear him talking, no one else outside of the alcoholic, philosophical dog Brian seems to understand him. Add in a perverted sex-crazed neighbor named Quagmire, a paraplegic police officer named Joe and an African-American friend named Cleveland, and the cast alone makes this show a huge hit.
However, what makes the show funny are the pop-culture references, where MacFarlane pulls out just about everything that was popular from the past and throws it at the viewers in rapid-fire jokes. Add in a lot of heart, usually coming from unexpected places, and it is never a question why fans defend this show so passionately. To date, there have been 16 seasons and 300 episodes.
5. Rick and Morty
One of the newest cartoons on this list, Rick and Morty premiered in 2013 and has quickly become one of the best and most creative adult cartoons in television history. Owing a great deal to franchises like Back to the Future, Rick and Morty focuses on a young boy named Morty Smith and his maniacal mad scientist grandfather, Rick Sanchez.
Despite every effort of Morty’s dad to stop them, Rick often takes Morty on adventures, which leads them to parallel universes and other worlds and puts the young boy in mortal danger every step of the way while Rick is often drunk out of his mind. Created by Justin Roiland and Dan Harmon of Community fame, Rick and Morty quickly became the smartest adult cartoon on television.
The storylines from Rick and Morty are incredibly absurdist, often with plots that can make anyone’s head spin. Instead of having a simple plot and then throwing jokes at the viewers, like a Family Guy episode, Rick and Morty has the humor derived from the actual events of the story and the plots themselves. This is whether it is meeting their evil doppelgangers or running from the most ridiculous and absurd monsters ever created in a cartoon.
Rick and Morty has been on for three seasons with 31 episodes, but while the fan love is there and the show deserves to live as long as lesser adult cartoons, this Adult Swim series will only live as far as the creators allow it to. Knowing Harmon and Roiland, there is a chance that it will die long before its time.
4. Star Wars: The Clone Wars
If Star Wars: The Last Jedi proves anything, it is that Star Wars fans can’t agree on anything, with half of them living in the past and half of them wanting new stories for the future. However, one thing that almost all Star Wars fans can agree on is that Star Wars: The Clone Wars is almost universally beloved. This is a show that adults and their kids can watch together and discover a period in the Jedi’s tales that almost never fails to entertain.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars takes place between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. There was another series called Star Wars Rebels that took place after Sith but before A New Hope, and while that was a great cartoon as well, Clone Wars just stands above almost anything Star Wars related, as easily above the prequels that it fleshes out.
The original Clone Wars series aired on Cartoon Network from 2003 until 2005 and was helmed by Genndy Tartakovsky, fresh off his work on Samurai Jack. The series focused on Jedi Knights and clone troopers battling the battle droid armies and included the fantastic General Grievous. This critically acclaimed series was followed by a 2008 series that lasted for six seasons with 121 episodes.
While the original Clone Wars had the clear Tartakovsky style, the new one was pure CGI and had many actors from the movies return to voice the characters as they battled Grievous and Dooku, among others. The series ended with the sixth season airing on Netflix to finish the story before Disney re-started the movies.
3. Archer
In 2009, FX introduced an adult cartoon based in the world of secret agents and made sure to make the themes and situations as adult-oriented as possible, ensuring that Archer remained the sole possession of adults looking for something funny and risque, but animated. To sell the idea, imagine if James Bond was even more over-the-top, arrogant and sex hungry.
Sterling Archer is a secret agent, one of the best in the world. Instead of working for the government, he works for a private organization owned by his mother, Malory Archer. Other characters include the bombshell secret agent Lana Kane, and agency employees Cheryl, Pam, Ray, Cyrill and Dr. Algernop Krieger.
The cartoon is often episodic in nature, with one example being when Sterling fell in love with a Russian agent who wanted to defect and then went into a deep depression when she died. This lasted numerous episodes, and the humor and action were purely based on the story of Sterling falling in love and then going on a self-destructive tear. The humor in all the episodes is adult-only, with alcohol abuse, sexual escapades, sadomasochism, torture, and other sensitive topics up front and center.
Archer seems to know no bounds. The voice acting is spectacular, and there is a chance this never would be as funny without the particular voice cast on board, but the stories just deliver the best humor since Arrested Development. Most fans can find Archer on Netflix, and if there is one binge-worthy adult cartoon to seek out, this is it.
2. South Park
South Park is a miracle of adult cartoon television. If anyone has seen how the show is created, it is easy to see how it is always on the cusp of world events and popular culture happenings. Matt Stone and Trey Parker make the episodes the week that they air on Comedy Central, and the quality almost never falters despite the tight deadlines. The animation style is simple, but that allows the duo to put all their work into the actual cutting-edge story lines.
South Park debuted in 1997, featuring four young boys in Colorado named Cartman, Stan, Kyle and Kenny. For the first few years, Matt and Trey tackled various social issues, whether it was LGBT issues, religious controversies, body shaming, or celebrity worship. The characters were all defined well, with Cartman the overweight bully, Kyle the introverted Jewish boy, Stan the straight-laced kid, and Kenny as a poor kid who died every episode.
When you consider the show was picked up based on an animated Christmas card that had Santa Claus and Jesus Christ battling to the death, it is easy to see that there is nothing Matt and Trey won’t do. Add in a Christmas Poo, a large gay man gathering all the gay animals in the world to live in peace, and a movie that saw the U.S. go to war with Canada while Satan and Sadaam Hussain teamed up in Hell, this was a show that knows no boundaries.
Recent seasons took on a more topical nature, attacking the NFL and Donald Trump, but South Park has continued producing quality television over two decades after its debut. South Park has been on the air for 21 seasons with 287 episodes.
1. The Simpsons
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While later seasons do not match up to the brilliance of the earlier work, there is no doubting what The Simpsons mean to television and the adults who love cartoons. The show was initially showcased on the Tracey Ullman Show in 1997 as shorts and then debuted as its own series in 1989. While the animation in the first season was rough, and the characters were still finding themselves, the seeds were planted for brilliance.
Homer Simpson is the father and an incompetent employee at the town of Springfield’s power plant. His son Bart is a troublemaking pre-teen and his daughter Lisa is a smart kid with high aspirations. Add in his loving wife Marge and baby Maggie, and you have the family that the entire series revolves around.
There is absurdist humor here, but it never goes over the top like Family Guy. There are pop culture references, but they never dominate the story. This is a family show, with a healthy dynamic of jokes that stem from the situations the characters find themselves in, rather than just jokes thrown in for more laughs. There is as much heart and warmth as there are mean-spirited gags and punchlines. The best Simpsons shows tow the line perfectly between the gags and the characters
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Matt Groening created something extraordinary with The Simpsons. In this show, the jokes take on pop culture references, but they do so with a new and unique kick. The lead character has changed from Bart to Homer over the years, but the humor remains true. After an astonishing 29 seasons and 629 episodes, it is still going strong. The Simpsons has surpassed all other adult cartoons as the best of all time.